Innovation hubs in Australian public institutions: An exploratory study of their resilience in a time of disruption

Abstract

Public universities have sought to leverage innovation hubs as physical environments to enable new collaboration models and partnerships between students, academics, budding entrepreneurs, and wider industry. In particular, innovation hubs have allowed public universities to position themselves as active participants in the entrepreneurial arena. These innovation hubs, however, experienced a tremendous degree of disruption because of COVID-19-induced lockdowns, social distancing, closed borders, and a reduced number of persons allowed in a given space. Thus, it is essential to gain an understanding of how innovation hubs in public institutions have responded to these issues, ascertain the degree to which such disruption has impacted them, and identify the strategies that have allowed hubs to stay operational in such a disruptive environment. To do this, personnel involved in the management and administration of such hubs were interviewed, together with a selection of industry experts. This qualitative interrogation allowed a thematic analysis to be undertaken, thereby resulting in several emergent themes that contributed to identifying key learnings that could assist the operation of these innovation hubs in times of future disruption.